Teams Try To Make Sure They Know Their Place

May 31, 1992|By JERRY TRECKER; Courant Staff Writer

American soccer fans have had to make do with such short rations in their lifetimes that even the coming of the 1994 World Cup probably hasn't truly sunk in. This week, with three top international games scheduled for New Haven and Foxboro, the promise begins to become reality.

Italy and Portugal, who meet this afternoon at the Yale Bowl, haven't just decided to visit the United States because they would like a North American vacation. They're here to test the conditions they might face in June 1994 when the World Cup kicks off. In addition to trying out players and tactics, the national teams here this week will also be looking at hotels, practice facilities and travel arrangements, searching for the right combination.

Ireland, the third visiting team that will meet both Italy and Portugal in Foxboro, will be scouting this country with 1994 in mind. The Irish opened U.S. Cup '92 Saturday night against the U.S. national team in Washington. They probably wouldn't mind having to find hotels in Greater Boston in 1994.

Americans who don't follow soccer -- and that means most of the population -- have a hard time understanding what this quadrennial competition means around the world. We occasionally get worked up about a U.S. Olympic hockey or basketball team, but most of our so-called "world" champions do nothing but beat other teams in their own league.

For the Italian-American and Portuguese-American fans who go to Yale Bowl today, national pride is very much a part of the afternoon. Italy has won the World Cup three times and been runner-up once. Italian soccer is a national institution, as much a part of the country as its ancient ruins and Renaissance legacy.

Italy is also a land with sharp regional divisions. This adds another element of pressure to national team coach Arrigo Sacchi, who not only is expected to win every game but to triumph with just the right blend of players chosen from bitter club rivals. Fans of Napoli, Roma, Juventus and Milan, for example, do count the number of players who get called to the national team. Every national team loss is followed by the inevitable dialogues in the cafes and the highly competitive press.

Here in America we like to argue whether we'd rather have Roger

Clemens or Jack Morris pitch that one, crucial game. National team soccer coaches have to make that decision in real games, then live with the result. For Sacchi that decision involves Italy's attack, where $50 million worth of talent, Roberto Baggio and Gianlucca Vialli, is supposed to get the job done.

Portugal, a World Cup semifinalist in 1966 when the great Eusebio led the country's finest team, does not have Italy's history of international success, but is not so unlike its opponent. The rivalry among Portugal's top clubs -- FC Porto and Boavista from Porto, Benfica and Sporting from Lisbon -- often carries over into national team selection. The fact Portugal has not qualified for a major tournament final stage since the 1986 World Cup simply adds to the hopes for this national eleven.

Today's crowd will know all of this. Many will arrive at Yale Bowl with national flags in one hand, club scarves or caps in the other. They will probably be optimistic because the game game today doesn't count.

The next time the teams meet, Feb. 24, 1993, it will be in a World Cup qualifying game. Italy and Portugal are in the same European Group I qualifying pool. Joined by Estonia, Malta, Scotland and Switzerland, they are looking for the two places that will guarantee a return trip to America in 1994.

Getting everything right for that qualifying grind is what this game and the United States Cup is all about